Life or Something Like It ** (2002, Angelina Jolie, Edward Burns, Tony Shalhoub, Christian Kane, James Gammon, Melissa Errico, Stockard Channing) – Classic Movie Review 3027

Director Stephen Herek’s 2002 romantic comedy drama is a plush, well-acted but largely dreary heart-tugger, in which Angelina Jolie plays Seattle TV news reporter Lanie Kerrigan who interviews a psychic homeless man (Tony Shalhoub) about a football game’s score.

The self-styled ‘prophet of God’  tells her that her life has no meaning and that she has only a week to live. As his other predictions begin to come true, this sparks her into life and she has one final fling with a fellow worker, news cameraman Edward Burns.

Jolie is a class performer, as always, managing some warmth and charm, but the likeable enough Burns is struggling to make his mark. And John Scott Shepherd’s thin, strained, over-stretched story and screenplay really do have problems. The film ends up as intriguingly clumsy a mess as its title.

Also in the cast are Stockard Channing, Christian Kane, James Gammon, Melissa Errico, Lisa Thornhill, Gregory Itzin and Max Baker.

Classic Movie Review 3027